Sampler

Free Fiction Online


Holdfast
"Irrel was halfway through milking Black-Eye when the sky went dark with dragons. He looked up to see what had happened and saw dozens of winged shapes obscuring the sun in the east. They were flying low to the ground; that might mean rain, but if they were riding-dragons it meant battle was coming. He shrugged and turned back to his work, resuming his interrupted song: 'Five riders in a ring, round Bessie’s udder. Bessie bring milk, milk bring butter.'"

Lagos
"Safrat liked being a vacuum cleaner. Of all the jobs she might be given, it was her favorite: she liked to see in the rich peoples’ homes, even if her point of view was only three inches off the ground. It was light work, too, not like digging earth or handling barrels of toxic waste. That shouldn’t have made a difference but it did, at the end of the day when the motor-muscles she didn’t have ached beyond words."

Heroic Measures
"He was lying on the bed, his eyes closed, his form as muscular as ever but looking somehow deflated. The room was nearly empty, only a heart monitor beeping softly and rhythmically. There were no tubes of saline solution running to his arm, no beeping and whirring and probing machines. The skin that had turned away uncounted bullets wouldn't admit them."
 
The Dragon's Lesson
"Child, why are you crying? Your first bleeding came this morning, and how many gifts did I give you to mark the day -- black stone bracelets carved smooth, and a silver necklace so fine a spider might have woven it. Yes, and now you have your own house, as a sister should, walls woven tight against the wind. What reason do you have for tears?"

Long Pig
"Don't be fooled by Long Pig's name -- it's not another Szechuan hot pot place on the Spadina strip. Chef Nimith Keo is well known from his stints as head chef at Chimayo Bistro and Aubergine, both fondly recalled restaurants, but it's Long Pig he'll be remembered for. It's a fascinating, eclectic mix of haute and low, a fusion (how overused that word, how appropriate here!) of cuisines including his native Cambodian as well as Mexican, Caribbean and even Polynesian; it's also quite possibly the best restaurant in town."


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